March 20, 2014 -- Christina Desaulniers of Manchester isn’t Irish, but on St. Paddy’s Day, March 17, 2014, she sure was lucky when her “50/50 Super Draw” ticket number – 003380 – was randomly selected from a pool of 97,024 tickets and won the top prize worth 50% of the game’s total sales - - $242,560!

“I just got home from work. The 4 o’clock news was on TV and I heard they were getting ready to do the 50/50 drawing,” Desaulniers told Lottery officials. “I went and grabbed my ticket and turned it upside down in my hand. As they announced the winning number, I wrote it down on a piece of paper—then I turned my ticket over and looked at my number. When I saw that it matched, I immediately started crying. Then I checked it about a hundred more times,” said Desaulniers with a laugh.

Yesterday afternoon, Desaulniers and her husband, Bob, arrived at CT Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill to happily claim their 50/50 Super Draw prize for $242,560 (value before taxes). “Winning this prize is like a big weight has been lifted off of us,” said a teary-eyed Desaulniers. “We’ll be able to pay off our bills and finally get caught up.”

Desaulniers purchased her 50/50 Super Draw ticket at Stop & Shop #613, located at 10 Pitkin Road in Vernon—the same lottery retailer, coincidentally, that sold Rinaldo and Lorraine Fierro of East Hartford their “Lucky for Life” 2nd prize winning draw ticket worth $25,000 a year for life on February 10!

For selling Desaulniers her top prize winning ticket, Stop & Shop #613 will receive a $2,426 bonus check from the CT Lottery.